Really, there can’t be a better introduction to the ALL OUT TO SEA issue of EAP: The Magazine than The Ship of Theseus by EAP resident philosopher Bruce E. R. Thompson. He writes about the spirit animating the renewable body. That’s what I think best to focus on as we head into a renewable year. That spirit is always there, guiding the body on its particular Desire Path.
Do you know the idea of Desire Path? It’s an architectural term, meaning the paths that residents of a city make for themselves. They’re always an organic curve, not the straight grids of most cities. Architecture is finally catching up with the spirit. As I hope is true for all of culture.
EAP contributors, as always, are ahead of, if not the curve, at least the rigid straight line. David D. Horowitz writes about how we’ve so often been dogmatically wrong in the past: Martian Canals. Yahia Lababidi opens up gently in Garden Meditations. And Jim Meirose, enigmatic as ever, puts our confusion into his own original poetic form: Waiting Room.
If there’s only one piece you read, let it be the most important this issue. Scholars Brian Griffith and Zhinia Noorian write about Iran’s Million Signature Campaign. When we’re out to sea, history can be a lighthouse helping us swim back in.
Also, a shout out to poetry editor Marissa Bell Toffoli. She’s usually so serene. I’m happy to see her add In Anger to her poetic quiver.
Congratulations to EAP contributor Charles Holdefer on the publication of his book, Don’t Look at Me. You can read a wonderful excerpt, Saving Emily, here. And further congratulations to EAP contributor and scholar of metaphysical history, Ronnie Pontiac, on the publication of his new book, American Metaphysical Religion. This is not only a valuable reference work, but a fascinating read as well.
By the way, if you’ve been interested in my own “My Life with Dogs,” here’s Princess. My relatives on my father’s side have never quite come to terms with what was going on in our family. They were, and indeed still are, all out to sea. Funny how children can see what the adults can’t.
Although it was my mother, now at the end of her life, who pointed out what truly makes life worth living. Have a look in the Jam Today blog for her answer.
Welcome back.